Review: Wussy @ the Low Beat, 7/24/14

ALBANY — With a sublimely raucous roar, Cincinnati-based indie-rockers Wussy kicked off their current tour just a few ticks before midnight on Thursday at the Low Beat with “Teenage Wasteland,” the opening track on their new album, “Attica!” Co-frontperson-guitarist Lisa Walker wailed about that magic moment “when the kick of the drum lined up with the beat of your heart,” and that just about summed up the spirit of the night.

The reigning dean of rock critics, Robert Christgau once declared, “Wussy have been the best band in America since they released the first of their five superb albums in 2005, only nobody knows it.” “Attica!” is their eighth album, and the band still has yet to receive much more than a mere modicum of mainstream recognition. Unfortunately, they weren’t flying under the radar of law enforcement as they made their way to Albany on Thursday, and as a result, they didn’t arrive at the Low Beat until 11:15 p.m. – for a 9 p.m. performance.

After members of the audience cheerfully carried the band’s equipment onto the stage, and Walker and co-leader Chuck Cleaver apologized for their tardiness, the band seemed to channel all of the day’s frustrations into their music, issuing forth a molten outpouring of intense, straight-from-the-heart, real-life rock ‘n’ roll.

Unflinchingly honest and emotionally exposed songs like “Bug” and “Beautiful” were layered with undeniable earworm pop hooks and a massive guitar squall (in large part due to the sky-saw of pedal steel guitarist John Earhardt) over the top of the big, brutal beat of drummer Joe Klug and bassist Mark Messerly. It’s an unlikely combination – like the mismatched yet marvelously melded voices of Walker and Cleaver – but it worked perfectly. There were hints of R.E.M. in “”To the Lightning,” a nod to Cat Stevens in “Happiness Bleeds,” a shimmer of the Byrds in “Death by Misadventure” and even outright lyrical theft of John Hartford in “Beautiful,” but Wussy stood tall in their own right without the need for any kind of rock star posturing. Wussy is never going to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but they can kick the butts of at least half of the inductees.

Wild one-man-band Bloodshot Bill did a yeoman’s job as the opening act, stretching his set to over an hour to cover for Wussy’s late arrival. Firing up deep-twang rockabilly and raw, foot-stomping blues, the manic, madcap guitarist-drummer dished out a seemingly never-ending array of vocal eccentricities – from yodeling to Tuvan throat-singing – as he thoroughly entertained the crowd.

Greg Haymes is a frequent contributor to the Times Union.

***
Concert review
Wussy
With Bloodshot Bill
When: 8 p.m. Thursday
Where: The Low Beat, 335 Central Ave., Albany
Length: Wussy, 75 minutes; Bloodshot Bill, 65 minutes
Highlights: Wussy, “Bug,” “Airborne” and especially “Beautiful”; Bloodshot Bill, the audience call-and-response of “Stop!”
The crowd: Due to the late hour, some in the audience left before the headliners hit the stage, but there was still a devoted and very vocal crowd of 50-60 on hand when the band wrapped it up.